You’ll have to open your eyes to the hurting if you want to follow Jesus.

 

Even when He was headed to a destination you’d often find Him stopping to heal the sick, cast out a demon, do some teaching, or raise the dead.

 

He didn’t look away so He could get where He was going.

 

He was moved by compassion and He just stopped.

 

He saw their pain and tended it.

He had long conversations and spent ample time with a woman at the well.

 

It was an intimate conversation. He took His time and cleared the room for that woman. He needed her attention fully and He wanted her to know she was seen. All the pain, all the sadness, all the loss, all the rejection, and all the grief.

 

He saw a woman in need, went the long way around, and went to meet her in a place He wasn’t really supposed to go. (He has a habit of doing this one doesn’t He?)

 

He is found speaking to this woman with no husband. This would mean she was an outcast with no value to society.

 

But although He was headed somewhere else, He says He must go through Samaria. He intended to tell her that He was the husbandman who would never leave.

 

She would never thirst again.

She was valuable to Him.

 

The disciples would get frustrated with Him. The Pharisees got frustrated with Him.

 

But Jesus wasn’t swayed by the voices and He never seemed frustrated at the sudden needs that arose.

 

His only frustrations seemed to be towards the religious who scorned His every move, dissected His every word, and questioned the very power and authority that flowed out of Him.

 

But through it all Jesus kept moving among the people.

 

He kept teaching.

He kept healing.

He kept listening.

He kept delivering.

 

He didn’t turn from the burdens of humanity even with the task He was given and the urgency of his coming destinations.

 

No, He looked upon the people because it was for them that He came.

 

Learn to love the suffering.

Learn to see them fully.

Learn to lean into their broken whispers and be willing to stop and love them to health.

 

They are valuable to Him and throughout our lives we likely will be “them” a time or two.

 

I’ve found that some of the most beautiful miracles I’ve seen Jesus unexpectedly do were while I was headed “somewhere else.”

 

It’s when you learn to stop along the way that you’ll see many wonders of Jesus.